Several popular TV shows from the 80s and 90s have been adapted as feature films in recent years. Now, it turns out that a cult favorite actually has a theatrical script already written. Over the weekend, Quantum Leap star Scott Bakula and show creator Donald P. Bellisario got together for a comic-con panel, where they were asked what the possibility of a reboot was. As it turns out, the odds are pretty decent as Bellisario has already written a script. According to him...
I just finished writing a Quantum Leap feature. I don't know what's going to happen with it, but I did write it. ... I write things exactly the same way. I just start writing and I let them take me wherever it's going to take me. I'm entertained the same way the audience is. So I just put Scott and Dean [Stockwell] in my head, kind of rebooted them, and went from there.
Fans of Quantum Leap should probably relax a little bit as it seems that, while the script exists, there are no particular plans to do anything with it. However, Donald P. Bellisario told L.A. Comic-Con (via Entertainment Weekley) that the project is apparently some sort of reboot of the concept. What's potentially interesting, is that Bellisario says that he started the concept with original stars Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell in his head. While any reboot would almost certainly star other actors, it seems the originals may have acted as a sort of template for the new ideas.
Quantum Leap ran from 1989 to 1993 and starred Scott Bakula as a scientist named Sam Beckett who theorizes that time travel within one's own lifetime is possible. He succeeds, but in doing so actually "leaps" into the life of another person, and is unable to return. In each episode Sam needed to change some element of the past in order to make life better for the person whose life he was inhabiting, only then would he leap out and into the life of somebody else, continually trying to eventually leap back into his own life. The series had a passionate fan base, but not a particularly large one, leading to its cancellation after five seasons.
As a member of that passionate fan base, I'd certainly love to see something new from the world of Quantum Leap, though the premise certainly lent itself to an episodic TV series better than it would seem to work as a feature film, unless somebody decides to go with a full franchise concept. Although that would probably be a tough sell for a show with a limited built-in fan base. We'll certainly be keeping our eyes on a potential Quantum Leap movie, stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more news on this if and when it happens.
